After reading hundreds of romance books, I have to confess I'm a little bit jaded. Not quite over it I would say, but it's become harder to be impressed. As all romance fans would know, they all follow a certain same formulaic structure. First meeting, adversarial interactions, conflicting attraction, sexual tension, mating, blissful period, big misunderstanding and then making up and ever after happiness. The trend now is to add some types of mystery into it, but I never find one that is satisfying in this genre. I don't think a good romance needs it anyway since all are pretty much in balancing/pacing all those sections, believability of each transition and dialogues. Rarely did I find a book hit those trifecta though. Sarah Mayberry's books are miss-and-hits for me. When it's good, it's really, really good. When it's not, it's just another generic forgettable romance. Her favorite rival falls in the latter category. I was excited when I first read the blurbs because I'm a sucker for this trope, enermies-turn-lovers. The book start out promising too, up until the point the protagonists jump into bed together then it's not quite 'Favorite Rival' anymore more like 'My Perfect, Sappy, Perfect Boyfriend'. The workplace dynamics that have been set up so well are completely abandoned. Quite a disappointment because I so hoped this book would pull me off my romance funk. No such luck.
3/5
Read it yourself.
